Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue

Summary: History moves in a line. History moves in a circle. Sakura:Tsunade Naruto:Jiraiya Sasuke:Orochimaru…what if history moved in a spiral?

Spiral

Sakura kicked away the leaves and rocks that covered the ground in front of her and smoothed the soft earth with her sandaled foot. She picked up a relatively straight and pointed stick and placed the tip in the ground, pulling it up and around again and again.

Sasuke glanced at her and Naruto outright stared.

"Sakura-chan? What're you doing?"

Sakura stared at the spiral that she had drawn into the dirt. What was she doing? Maybe this had something to do with the other day, when she had been thinking of the parallels between her's and Tsunade's generation.

She took a deep breath and continued to keep her gaze on the spiral, "Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun…how do you think history runs?"

Naruto frowned, "History is just what's happened! So history goes on and on and on, and every new moment, there's new stuff to add!" Naruto seemed unable to articulate his thoughts into words and Sasuke mumbled a soft 'dobe', but they all understood his meaning.

Sakura nodded slowly, "So basically…you think history runs in a line?"

Naruto nodded as well; that was what he had been trying to get at.

Sakura's eyes flickered over to Sasuke. "What about you, Sasuke-kun? How do you think history runs?"

Sasuke shrugged. He had pondered this time and time again, "It repeats itself. It goes in…in a circle, I suppose you could say. You only avoid more mistakes by learning from past mistakes; you don't avoid the problem that arises, which will have happened some time in history before."

Sakura nodded again and prodded the spiral in front of her, "Yeah. Those are the two main theories, but how about…what if history ran in a spiral?"

Naruto's brow furrowed in confusion, "A spiral? But why, I mean—"

Sakura put a hand up to stop Naruto's question, "I'm getting to that. What I mean is…well, a few years ago, after a training session with Tsunade-san, I realized exactly how similar our team was to hers. I was the only girl and eventually, under Tsunade-san's guidance, I became a medical ninja, just like her. Naruto-kun, you trained under Jiraiya and the two of you are both the most energetic of your groups. Sasuke-kun, you trained under Orochimaru and…"

Sakura trailed off, not wanting to mention Sasuke's betrayal of the Leaf. It had been a taboo subject ever since the day it happened.

"I completely forgot about that, being so caught up healing and the war, and I just started thinking about it again a couple days ago…there were so many similarities. It was uncanny how our group seemed to mirror Tsunade-san's perfectly. But Sasuke-kun…you came back to us. You didn't lose yourself in a pursuit for power and…things changed. So, I just think that maybe history runs in a spiral."

Naruto's face brightened in understanding, "Yeah! Yeah! I mean, look at Ino-san and Shikamaru-san and Chouji-san! Their parents were great on a team, but them three together didn't work out that well…and Kakashi-sensei! I saw a picture of him and his genin team, and there was a girl that seemed happy, just like you, Sakura-chan! Kakashi seemed just like Sasuke-kun all scowling and stuff. And that other kid there seemed like me! And Kakashi-sensei was just like his old sensei!

Sakura smiled softly at her friend, "Yeah…"

Sasuke remained quiet and stared at the crackling fire in front of them, silently thanking the kami that history did run in a spiral and he had escaped the cycle of the Legendary Sannin and the path that Orochimaru had chosen.

Five yards away, Kakashi looked up from his dirty orange book and gave a little smile. All he could do was hope that the spiral continued outwards and didn't fade back into a never-ending circle. All of Team 7 had suffered enough grief without two of their members dying off as well.

The four members of the group packed up their things and started their journey back to Konoha the next day in the usual high spirits that resulted from these types of excursions. Afterall, it was only a short camping trip to celebrate the seventh anniversary of Team Kakashi.

A/N: The spiral thing was from reading my history textbook (about the age of reason and how scientists thought history was either a circle or a line). I'd been thinking about the parallels between every generation in Naruto and inspired by Lisse's Three by Three. I would never have had the idea of writing a fic about these ideas had I not read her oneshot, which is excellent. Please review!